Local People using Casino money to get back land and aquire new buisness.
Port Madison Enterprises paid $4.65 million for White Horse Golf Course and surrounding properties in a transaction announced Feb. 25. (MEEGAN M. REID | KITSAP SUN)
KINGSTON — The business arm of the Suquamish Tribe bought the White Horse golf course and its 159 undeveloped housing lots at a bargain price, according to Kitsap County property records.
Port Madison Enterprises declined to discuss the sale amount, but records filed with the Kitsap County Assessor’s Office show that the tribe bought the land for $4.65 million, 39 percent less than its 2010 assessed value of $7.55 million. The 2010 value was down 53 percent from the 2009 valuation of $16.06 million.
Those records are kept so the county assessor can make property tax calculations. But whether the land remains taxable is an open question.
The tribe may try to put the land in “trust” status, a legal arrangement in which the U.S. government holds land in trust — and tax-free — for American Indian tribes. It can be a complicated arrangement, and the conversion doesn’t happen automatically when a tribe or tribal entity takes over a parcel of land.
About 110 acres of the White Horse property is within the boundaries of the Port Madison Indian Reservation.
Port Madison Enterprises, the business arm of the Suquamish Tribe, bought the White Horse golf course and surrounding lots on Feb. 25. (MEEGAN M. REID | KITSAP SUN)
Jim Ghiglione of Lopez Island hits a few balls on the driving range at White Horse Golf Club in Kingston on Feb. 26. The Suquamish Tribe, which purchase White Horse and surrounding properties last month, may try to convert the property into trust land. (MEEGAN M. REID | KITSAP SUN)
“The Tribal Council and PME have not determined which properties will be submitted to the Department of Interior for conversion to trust status,” Suquamish Tribal Chairman Leonard Forsman said in a statement. “The Suquamish Tribe has a long term goal of restoring its homeland, and placing reservation area lands back into trust status is an important part of this vision and an appropriate role for a sovereign government.”
He referred to historic practices “aimed at assimilation” that resulted in parts of the reservation being “sold at auction by unscrupulous Indian Agents who had no interest in the welfare of the Suquamish Tribe at that time.”
This has resulted in the Suquamish reservation being sometimes referred to as a “checkerboard” reservation in which some properties are tribal trust and some are privately owned by non-natives.
The process for converting land to trust status starts with an application to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, said Gerald Ben, the Portland-based deputy regional director of the BIA. The process can last from six months to six years, he said.
How long varies depending on whether the tribe is converting land that’s already on a reservation, is next to a reservation, or is far away from a reservation.
The farther away the land is from a reservation’s boundaries, the more complex the process becomes. If the land is contiguous or on-reservation, the process is usually quicker, Ben said.
If the tribe wants to allow gambling on the land that’s being converted, the application process becomes even more rigorous.
The BIA also requires an environmental assessment on the land, he said, and the tribe or its entity must hold the title free and clear. It’s unclear if there are any liens on the PME purchase.
When a tribe applies to convert land into trust, the local government — in this case Kitsap County — is notified and has an opportunity to respond to the request.
Ben said often when tribes and local governments have cooperative relationships, the tribes agree to “service contracts,” which in effect act as a tax to pay for emergency or public works services.
While not required, it can be a measure of good faith and “in their interest to do that.”
The 2010 property tax bill on the White Horse properties is $77,082. That includes collections for things like county services, the fire district and schools.
Kitsap County planner Dennis Oost, who oversees the White Horse development, said he hasn’t received word of an application, and isn’t entirely clear what the sale means to the county.
The Suquamish could find a model for their future in Sequim, where the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe also shares ownership of the 7 Cedars casino and The Cedars and Dungeness golf course. The Jamestown S’Klallam purchased the golf course in 2007.
Jerry Allen, 7 Cedars CEO, said PME is likely to do as his tribe has, providing good-paying jobs at the course with good benefits.
“That’s unheard of in the golf world,” he said.
The Jamestown S’Klallam tribe is working to complete environmental cleanups and assessments to convert The Cedars and Dungeness to trust, he said.
“The standards that are required to do this are very high,” he said.
Allen acknowledged that the question of taxes has come up, but said many nontribal golf courses already don’t pay typical property taxes. There are three municipal courses in Kitsap County that operate tax-free — two courses at Bremerton’s Gold Mountain, and Kitsap County’s Village Greens.
“Counties and cities have been running these things for decades and decades,” Allen said. “It’s the same kind of benefits.”
The Suquamish Tribe bought the golf course and other property from Columbia State Bank. The bank acquired the golf course when it took over American Marine Bank, which had been seized by regulators.
AMB got the land when the original developer was unable to make loan payments
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